Game Thread 2023-24 Game #25 - BLAZERS VS WARRIORS - DECEMBER 17, 2023 - SUNDAY - 6:00 PM PST - ROOT

According to Billups, he brought Ayton in to rebound, but the plan either way was to call timeout, so I don't believe there was ever a plan for Ayton to inbound.

Like you said, the Curry miss was a surprise, no doubt. I'm curious if Billups had instructed Ayton and the team to call timeout in the chance there was a miss. It appears Brogdon did try to call a timeout, so either Brogdon was doing his own on thing, or Brogdon was aware of what they were to do and Ayton wasn't or Ayton hadn't been told as well. None of the outcomes are great because it either means Billups didn't communicate properly with his team in an important late game decision or Ayton isn't paying attention or doing as he was told. We'll probably never know what was said.

 

Great post! This is what I saw as well.

@Whyachi do you have another shot that shows Grant touching the ball out-of-bounds? I believe you said he clearly touched it with both feet out in another post.

I'll be curious what the 2-minute report says. The report hasn't been posted at this time.

https://official.nba.com/2023-24-nba-officiating-last-two-minute-reports/

 

Deandre wasn’t here for half those losses….

 

And you never answered my question about why that had any relevance to the conversation.

 

Yeah. That's why I'm wondering? The players on the court had enough experience to call the TO if that was what was conveyed by the coaching staff? Brogdon, Ayton, Grant, Simons. Those players should know for sure. IMO they are not young players any longer.
I am with you on Sharpe though. Glad he got down there and got a shot off. Tough call on the charge. Malloy is usually a let them play kind of Ref. I looked at it a couple times. Not sure he was completely set. I could have seen that as a block as well.

 

Ayton is what he is. If he was playing anywhere near #1 pick level we wouldn’t have been able to get him. He’s a younger serviceable center. He has his warts. Our offense doesn’t really utilize him very well. He has shown he can play better. If he doesn’t work out, oh well.

 

True but we were pretty competitive defensively in those games in LA and GS especially.

 

It’s a trade off because our interior defense was garbage and our defensive rebounding was terrible. Zubac ate us up.

 

I will apologize up front.
This is such a weak take. Demand better. Force this guy to put forth better effort and make him earn his paycheck.
If he checks out then he checks out. Life is tough sometimes. Treating him with kid gloves is just going to delay the inevitable. Time to put the big boy pants on as far as I'm concerned.

 

Our defensive rebounding has been piss poor all season. Mostly has to do with our PF averaging less than a rebound per quarter while playing nearly 36 mins in a game.

 

Ayton was awful. There was one play (not called for) where he left the paint and checked Curry, which forced Ant to switch onto Kuminga. They got an easy bucket and Ant looked pretty confused.

 

that's part of it for sure. Another big part of it is the downgrade in rebounding from Robert Williams to Reath.

Sharpe/Camara/Walker/Brogdon all rebound, for their positions, at least at an average level. The rebounding voids are starting PF and backup C

 

Ok. Fair. But we knew going in that he had issues with consistency. So people raging at him when we knew what we were getting seems a little silly.

That's like buying a car off craiglist and the ad clearly states that CD player doesn't work and sometimes you have to let it warm up in the morning or it will die, and yet the person who bought the car gets furious when the CD player isn't working and the car died.

 

Because PG play was a topic, I knew exactly where you stood on Ant and Scoot, and I wanted to understand where you stood on Brogdon's game and where he fit in Portland.

Hopefully that's ok.

 

Is Ayton the only player who goofed on defense in that game?

 

I think he's a great backup point guard. I think he's an adequate starter if we didn't already have two other point guards. I think he sometimes shoots too much, but that might be Billups telling him to shoot because the rest of the team can't shoot.

I don't think he fits while we have so many guards.

 

No. Obviously not... but that is also a strawman argument.

A lot of the defensive issues last night were a direct result of Ayton switching out on guards when he didn't need to.

 

I think it was the game plan to trap and blitz Steph. Part of the reason why Curry has such a poor game.

 

How is that a strawman argument?

To only point out one player's deficiencies on defense to me means he was particularly bad compared to his teammates.

 

But he’s the one who preached about the new start new beginning and implied the last team and organization might have held him back.
IMO if he wants to make statements like that he needs to be accountable.